Aleksandr Pogrebezskij

Aleksandr Pogrebezskij was a Lithuanian national of Russian descent who was affiliated with the Russian Mafia.

Biography
Aleksandr Pogrebezskij was born in the Lithuanian SSR, Soviet Union to a family of ethnic Russians, and he became involved with the Russian Mafia in Eastern Europe. In March of 1995, Pogrebezskij and Alexander Darichev met with two undercover US customs agents in Miami, Florida to discuss selling them weapons from the Bulgarian Armimex company, which offered them a large list of Cold War weapons ranging from assault rifles to anti-aircraft guns and missile launchers. The agents negotiated with the Russians for two years, luring them into a false sense of security. In July 1997, the agents arrested the two men for conspiracy, smuggling, and money laundering before they could ship some weapons to Miami, and they both spent four years in prison.